Warriors lose early showdown

Even for a veteran coach like Woodbridge's John Halagan, Tuesday night's game had to have been tough to swallow.

In a seesaw game with a wild finish, the Woodbridge boys basketball team fell to Corona del Mar, 64-63, in a Pacific Coast League matchup at Woodbridge.

The Warriors (12-7, 1-1) trailed 32-31 at the half but came out firing in the third quarter. Senior guard Tyler Branin scored five of his nine points in the period, while Michael Scarlett tallied four of his 12 points in the third frame.

But it was the end of the game where things got particularly interesting.

Down by a point with just seconds remaining, Woodbridge stole a Sea King inbound pass. With the next possession, Scarlett was unable to hit a shot and Corona del Mar got the rebound, forcing the Warriors to foul.

The Sea Kings (12-4, 2-0) missed the free throw, and Halagan's squad had “an open court situation” with a little less than five seconds remaining. A Woodbridge player was called for an offensive foul, however, and the Sea Kings got the ball back with under a second remaining and ran out the clock.

“It's disappointing,” Halagan said. “We had our chances. It was everything you would expect a league game between two good teams to be.”

The Sea Kings were led by Blake Flamson, who scored a game-high 22 points. Also chipping in were Bo St. Geme and Kevin Fults with nine points each.

While Hanagan isn't thrilled with the outcome of the game, he isn't looking at one particular thing his team did wrong throughout the game. Instead, he gives credit to Corona del Mar and notes that there were a lot of things his team probably could have done here and there.

“When you lose a game by one point, you look back, and a game's an accumulation of plays,” Halagan said. “But from our perspective, I could probably look at 20 plays that I wish we either could have executed better or maybe come up with that loose ball or maybe come up with that extra rebound, get that extra possession.”

The veteran coach said that while his team will likely be upset with Tuesday's outcome, they don't have time to mope around.

The Warriors play Friday night at defending league-champion Northwood. Halagan said his team would be a lot better served starting league play 2-1 rather than 1-2.

“We have to put this one in the rear-view mirror quick and have two good days of practice and get ready for a very good Northwood team,” Halagan said. “We can't feel sorry for ourselves. If we do, we'll just get crushed on Friday.”